NCAA Football Report (Week 10)
The race for the playoff officially began this past week when the committee released their first rankings of the year.
It was the official announcement of who was in and who was out with only a few weeks left to make a case and change the rankings.
The first rankings were a big topic of debate before they were released as many wondered which one-win team could make it in and if an undefeated team like Miami could make the move into the top four.
When the rankings were released the debate only increased as a few of the rankings seemed pretty strange to most.
The #1 spot was one point of contention as the Alabama Crimson Tide had never moved from first place in any ranking throughout the season.
Yet when the first CFP rankings were released they had moved to second place behind in-conference rival, Georgia.
The Bulldogs took the top spot in the rankings and it surprised many although everyone assumed both would be in the top four.
Although there may be some angry fans and some confused analysts the fact is that the top ranking will change and it doesn’t matter who is at the top.
Both teams are in the SEC and aren’t likely to lose the rest of the season, although the Iron Bowl is still coming up.
If they do continue to win and stay undefeated their final game of the year will be for the SEC Championship where only one will be able to win.
The winner of that title will likely end the season on top while the loser could be in danger of moving out of the top four altogether.
That is where the playoff will likely be determined for these two teams so the #1 ranking shouldn’t matter too much as they will have a direct chance to take it, which doesn’t come along often.
The other big mystery for many was the fact that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were a part of the top four on the initial rankings.
Although they have been moving up and they had a legitimate chance at the playoff many had them just outside.
It was widely thought that they would have to win a few more big games in order to get themselves into the playoff.
They would also need some teams to lose and drop off in order to find their way to the top four, which didn’t seem like it was going to be very likely.
To the ire of many though they did make the initial top four as their exposure might have won out again as a big name.
Still, the committee might have also looked at the schedule and essentially said that if the Irish could find their way through the rest of the season they belong.
The Irish are not tied to a conference, although they do have an agreement with the ACC, and therefore their schedule is usually full of good teams.
The rest of the year sees the Irish take on #10 Miami and #21 Stanford while also already beating USC and NC State who were ranked #11 and #14 at the time.
Their only loss of the season came by one point against the top-ranked Bulldogs showing that they are close to the #1 team in the country and all of those put them in the #3 spot.
It will still be a debate and without a conference championship, they really need to make an impression as they will be off in the final week of the season.
As all of the top four teams took wins this week they are looking to stay in the playoff and a big blow to a major conference helped all of them.
The Big Ten still had a lot of one-loss teams that could find their way into the top four and with a championship game, they could have been a team to knock off a Notre Dame in the final week.
That was until this week when the two biggest competitors for the playoff took their second losses in a bad week for the conference.
Ohio State dropped their second game to Iowa while Penn State took a loss to Michigan State.
It puts the Spartans on top of the division while the losses also should give a big boost to Wisconsin who remained undefeated and looks to be the favourite to win the Big Ten title.
If they do they still have a shot at the top four but things could get very complicated for the entire conference should Michigan State, Ohio State or Penn State take the title.
Things are only getting more complicated as the weeks move on and the rankings should stay the same in the top four.
Below them is a wild scramble and at any point, in time the top four could change as one loss from any could change the face of the league.
The games are getting tougher and more important making the final month of the season something special with nothing figured out yet.
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